Missouri Route 30 (Gravois) Pavement Resurfacing and Safety Improvements in St. Louis City

Understanding safety concerns on Gravois

The 5.7-mile Route 30 (Gravois Avenue) corridor in the city of St. Louis is filled with places to live, work, eat and shop. It is a bustling corridor with a complicated mix of users: pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, and vehicular traffic. The history and vibrancy here is abundant. However, Gravois also has a history of crashes to address, especially injuries and fatalities.

 Between 2020 and 2024, there were:

• 22 fatalities (8 were pedestrians)
• 77 serious injuries (16 were pedestrians)
• 871 minor injuries (31 were pedestrians, 5 were cyclists).

This equates to a crash rate that is four times the average for similar roadways in Missouri. 

Even one fatality on the roadway is too many, but when crash rates rise above the statewide average, it becomes even more important to consider projects on the roadway that seek to address this problem. 

Which agencies are responsible for making changes on Gravois Ave?

Although Gravois is city-owned, MoDOT has agreed to maintain the corridor from “curb to curb.”  That means MoDOT maintains the pavement on the driving surface and is also responsible for signing, striping, signals and sweeping. The City of St. Louis is responsible for everything else - including sidewalks, lighting, accessing the road, drainage, permitting, landscaping, and other maintenance issues. MoDOT and the City regularly coordinate on all updates along the corridor and there are lots of opportunities for the two entities to co-invest on the same projects. This same maintenance agreement applies to six of the seven city-owned, MoDOT-maintained arterial routes in the City. 

What is the recent history of work on this corridor?

                The last paving project on Gravois Ave was in 2017. During the initial design for that project, MoDOT and the city of St. Louis proposed closing access from some of the cross streets to intersections along Gravois. When plans were presented to the public, they were not well-received with a variety of concerns. Some stakeholders along the route had concerns about those changes possibly increasing speeds on the corridor or reducing access to their homes and businesses. Other stakeholders wanted to see more space dedicated to bikes, rather than retaining the full pavement width for vehicles. 

In response to the community comments, MoDOT incorporated a number of modifications to the plans. One change to the project restriped two sections  of Gravois to reduce lanes. This “road diet” intended to help slow traffic in those areas and provide a center turn lane to get smoother traffic flow. Painted bike lanes were also included along much (but not all) of the corridor to provide dedicated space for cyclists on the roadway. The 2017 project did not close any side streets accessing Gravois. 

It was clear that the stakeholders on Gravois had insight to the corridor and input to be shared. The next pavement project is anticipated in 2029. MoDOT will re-evaluate the corridor with a planning study before design this time. That study will help expand the focus to be more collaborative with the community, consider the needs of all users, explore a wide variety of options to address those needs, and prioritize safety alongside mobility.  During this planning process, the department will involve the public from the beginning of the project to make sure the developing plans can take advantage of public insight and vision for the future. 

What is MoDOT doing NOW to improve safety on Gravois?

Below are a few of the installations that MoDOT has been working on recently: 

• Automatic Bike Detection – In response to citizen requests, automatic bike detection was installed at Sidney and Gravois to extend green time when bikes are present, without pushing a button. This intersection is often used by new riders and the change ensures slower bike users can make it through a very long intersection across Gravois safely.
• Leading Pedestrian Intervals - The department has modified signal timing at many signalized intersections to give pedestrians who push the button a head start across intersections before traffic is allowed to move.
• Reflective Backplates - Retroreflective yellow border plates have been installed around many of the signal heads on Gravois to make them more visible at night. This work continues along the corridor.
• Crosswalk Upgrades – Installed additional enhanced crosswalk patterns across the cross-streets along Gravois to make them more visible.
• Bump Out Islands - Islands were installed along the curbs in specific locations to shorten the distance pedestrians are exposed to traffic as they cross the street, and to help reduce vehicle speeds along the corridor.
• Collaboration with St. Louis City projects – MoDOT frequently works with city officials to evaluate and guide the designs of city-led projects on Gravois Ave.

What is the City of St. Louis doing NOW to improve safety on Gravois? 

The City of St. Louis owns Gravois Ave and has also been investing in safety on this corridor. A couple of safety projects are listed here, but please see the city’s website on transportation projects (Transportation) for a more complete list. 

• Safety Study and Design – A design for safety enhancements between Shenandoah and McNair has been completed by the Board of Public Service following a safety study in this segment of the corridor. MoDOT has been involved in providing feedback to the plans. (BPS Project)
• Intersection Hot-Spot Project –The intersection of Russell and Gravois received a significant update from the city with American Rescue Plan Act funds, including islands, new pavement markings, and enhanced protections for bicycles. (BPS Project)
• Bump Out Islands - Islands were also installed with city funds along the curbs in specific locations to shorten the distance pedestrians are exposed to traffic as they cross the street, and to help reduce vehicle speeds along the corridor. 

What do MoDOT and the City have planned to make corridor-wide changes on Gravois?

Currently, MoDOT is at the very beginning of a project along Route 30 (Gravois) within the city limits.  As a part of taking care of the existing roadway system, Gravois is due for resurfacing/repaving work that is funded to start in late 2029.  In addition, MoDOT has added safety funds to the project to implement broader, corridor-wide changes as appropriate. The City of St. Louis will also be co-investing in this project to address some of the safety enhancements that are under the authority of the city. This would include changes to the sidewalk, lighting or any cross-street access to the corridor. 

Before any changes can be designed, a thorough study of the corridor will be completed to describe the existing conditions and understand the route’s crash history. Next, the design work will consider what changes to the corridor would be helpful to reduce crashes while maintaining the functions of the corridor. The whole process of this study will be performed with the participation of our stakeholders along the corridor. The users, residents and businesses along Gravois all have unique insights that will inform the study team to help shape the designs throughout their development. The Gravois community is very engaged and passionate about the future of Gravois and will be important to the study and design progress.

Please add your address to our email list in the link at the bottom of this page if you want to be notified of the work as it progresses or any upcoming public meetings about Gravois.

Will this project solve all the issues on Gravois?

No. This project will use available funds to look at ways to strategically reduce crashes and potential fatalities along the corridor. Although planning and engineering can do a lot, the choices people make on the corridor still have an impact. For example - the effects of distracted, impaired, or aggressive driving can be significantly reduced, but cannot be eliminated solely through road design alone.